Sunday, June 07, 2015

Sunday Post

If this lasts until October, we are not just up a particular creek but will be without a canoe, as well:

Canada's left-leaning New
Democratic Party (NDP) has taken a slim lead in popular support ahead of
a general election scheduled for October, while support for the
Conservative government is flat, a public opinion poll said on Friday.

The Ekos survey
showed, however, that the NDP, which has never held power federally,
does not have enough backing to form a stable government by itself and
would likely have to work with another party.

The world is silent because the Palestinians have a better public image than a functioning democratic state in the Middle East does:

Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday criticized what he described as
the world's "silence" over recent rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip,
drawing a quick response from his country's closest ally, the U.S.

Netanyahu,
speaking at his weekly Cabinet meeting, said he hadn't heard anyone
condemn three rocket attacks from Gaza over the past two weeks. The
rockets caused no damage, nor any injuries.

"It
will be interesting to see if this silence continues when we use all
our strength in exercising our right to defend ourselves," Netanyahu
said. "It should be clear: the hypocrisy that is sweeping the world will
not chain our hands from defending the citizens of Israel."

The leaders of Germany and the United States hammered home a tough line
on Russia Sunday as they kicked off a G7 summit dominated by crises in
Ukraine and Greece. ...Merkel said later that Moscow should stay out of the G7 "community of values" for now over its actions in Ukraine.

"There is a barrier at the moment and I can't really see how it can be overcome," she told German public broadcaster ARD.

The
Japanese and Canadian leaders had Saturday made a point of visiting
Kiev on their way to Germany to voice support for Ukraine's embattled
leaders, as government troops again traded fire with pro-Russian rebels
in the east.

Norway has the world’s oldest, most sophisticated carbon tax.
Government researchers concluded 13 years ago this tax, introduced in
1991, has not significantly lowered emissions.

Carbon taxes are ineffective for the same reason the world’s largest
cap-and-trade market -- Europe’s decade-old Emissions Trading Scheme --
is ineffective.

Politicians cave in to political and economic pressure exerted by
major emitters, led by giant energy and industrial corporations, and
grant too many exemptions from carbon pricing, destroying its
effectiveness.

Carbon pricing raises our cost of living. It doesn’t lower emissions.

Cap-and-trade -- a stock market in emissions trading -- which
Premier Kathleen Wynne is imposing on Ontario, has been particularly
vulnerable to political corruption, fraud and organized crime in Europe.

British Columbia’s carbon tax, which returns the money it raises
through income tax cuts, is better, but ineffective. It will reduce B.C.
emissions by three megatonnes annually by 2020. China emits that every
2.5 hours.